Madhav Gadgil wins UN’s highest green award
Madhav Gadgil, a veteran ecologist, has been named a 2024 'Champion of the Earth' by UNEP for his lifetime achievements in environmental protection.
Veteran ecologist, Madhav Gadgil has been named one of the six ‘Champions of the Earth’ for 2024 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) .
The annual award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, recognizes trailblazers at the forefront of efforts to protect people and planet. Since 2005, the award has recognized 122 laureates for outstanding and inspirational environmental leadership.
Gadgil, 82, has been honoured in the “lifetime achievement” category. “He has spent decades protecting people and the planet through research and community engagement. From landmark environmental impact assessments of state and national policies to grassroots environmental engagement, Gadgil’s work has greatly influenced public opinion and official policies on the protection of natural resources. He is renowned for his seminal work in the ecologically fragile Western Ghats region of India, which is a unique global biodiversity hotspot,” astatementfrom UNEP stated.
The other awardees are Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples in the Policy Leadership category; Amy Bowers Cordalis, an indigenous people’s rights advocate from the US in the Inspiration and Action category ; Gabriel Paun, a Romanian environmental defender , also in the Inspiration and Action category; Lu Qi, a Chinese scientist in the Science and Innovation category; and Sekem, a sustainable agriculture initiative in Egypyt in the Entrepreneurial Vision category.
“In a scientific career that has spanned six decades – taking him from the halls of Harvard University to the upper echelons of India’s government – Gadgil has always considered himself a “people’s scientist,” the UNEP statement added.
His research has helped to protect marginalized people, promote the community-driven conservation of ecosystems, from forests to wetlands, and influence policymaking at the highest level. Of the seven books and at least 225 scientific papers he has written, Gadgil’s landmark work, dubbed the Gadgil Report , called for the protection of India’s ecologically fragile Western Ghats mountain range in the face of growing threats from industry and the climate crisis. Written in 2011, the report, whose recommendations are yet to be implemented was prescient about the fallout of the ravaging of the mountain range.
“I am very happy and satisfied,” he said to HT over phone. “I have been talking since morning.”
Gadgil, who plans to keep fighting the good fight, expects others to do the same.
“I hope that people will get organised, they will build pressure, our recommendations are in the interest of the larger mass of people in the country. This is more and more possible in the era of communication.”
“I have the satisfaction that as a scientist, empathetic to the people, I have been able to do various things which have helped in changing the direction of what is happening. I’m a durable optimist – and hopeful that this progress will continue to gather pace,” Gadgil told UNEP according to thestatement.
Gadgil chaired the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel in 2011. It recommended that 75% of the 129,037 sq km area of the Western Ghats be declared environmentally sensitive because of its dense forests and the presence of a large number of endemic species. This was controversial, with many states deeming it too restrictive. Three years later, a second panel, headed by rocket scientist K Kasturirangan, scaled down the area to 50%. The Kasturirangan report’s recommendations were further diluted, and four draft notifications have since been issued.
HT reported on July 31 that the eco-sensitive areas along the Western Ghats are yet to be notified by the Centre, 13 years since the first such demarcation was recommended by a panel led by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil in 2011. Among the areas recommended for such demarcation by the panel was that in Kerala’s Wayanad where over 250 persons were killed in landslides this monsoon.
“Almost 40% of the world’s land is already degraded, desertification is on the rise and devastating droughts are becoming more regular. The good news is that solutions already exist today, and around the world, extraordinary individuals and organizations are demonstrating that it is possible to defend and heal our planet,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said in the statement.
“The efforts of the 2024 Champions of the Earth stand tall as a reminder that the fight to protect our land, our rivers and our oceans is a fight we can win. With the right policies, scientific breakthroughs, system reforms, activism, as well as the vital leadership and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, we can restore our ecosystems.”
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